Politics

By Gram Slattery

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Former President Donald Trump’s call to supporters to protest what he said was his imminent arrest provoked conspiracy-fueled debate on far-right social media platforms on Monday, with some supporters fearing an elaborate government trap to arrest them.

Trump said on his Truth Social platform on Saturday he expected to be arrested this week for alleged hush money payments to a porn star during the 2016 presidential campaign and urged supporters to “protest, take our nation back!”

Critics worried his comments could provoke a repeat of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, when his supporters tried to overturn his 2020 presidential election defeat.

Security analysts who monitor far-right chatter on social media, said initially the impulse of Trump’s followers was to heed his call and hit the streets. But by Monday, the tone had shifted, according to the analysts and messages on several social media platforms examined by Reuters.

Many far-right grassroots activists appeared to see Trump’s possible arrest in the coming days as part of a trap set by Democrats to lure supporters into a riot that will ultimately hurt the Republican former president’s chances of winning back the White House in 2024 from Democratic President Joe Biden.

“We obviously are tracking various discussions both in extremist spaces and more broadly, and not surprisingly there’s a variety of reactions,” said Oren Segal, vice president of the Center on Extremism at the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish American organization which promotes civil rights.

“QAnon-related folks and some MAGA adherents are talking about how this is one big trap in some cases, that this is an operation intended to get (Trump’s) supporters in trouble,” Segal said.

QAnon is a conspiracy theory that holds, among other beliefs, that Trump is secretly fighting a cabal of child-sex predators that includes prominent Democrats, Hollywood elites and “deep state” allies. Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement is a core element of his support base.

The risk of an attack from a lone wolf remains serious, and some form of collective violence is possible, the analysts said. Any violence that results from Trump’s arrest is more likely to emanate from an individual or small cell rather than an action resembling the Jan. 6 attack, they added.

THREE WAVES, THE THIRD IN WACO, TEXAS

“A catalyst like (Trump’s) arrest would be something that would put people who are on the edge over the edge into plotting and carrying out violence,” said Daryl Johnson, a former intelligence official, who served as a senior domestic terrorism analyst at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

He pointed to an August attack on an FBI office in Ohio following a federal raid at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property as the type of violence that could recur. In that instance, an armed man tried to breach an FBI building in Cincinnati and was later shot dead by police following a gun battle.

“Following Trump’s call for protest, we’ve documented three fairly distinct waves of responses on far-right social media,” said Devin Burghart, executive director of the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights, which researches anti-democratic and discriminatory groups.

“Wave one was a call to attention for Trump loyalty rallies. Almost immediately thereafter there was a second wave of, ‘Don’t protest, it’s a trap just like January 6th,’ that really overtook the first,” Burghart said.

Some right-wing activists have claimed falsely that the Jan. 6 attack was instigated by undercover FBI agents and by antifa, an extreme left-wing movement.

“Most have moved to a third position where they have moved to supporting the Trump rally in Waco next weekend as a sort of compromise,” Burghart added.

Trump is holding his first 2024 campaign rally on Saturday in Waco, Texas.

Activist Laura Loomer, a prominent Trump supporter in Florida, called on Saturday for a “peaceful” Tuesday protest outside Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. But she walked that back later in the day, writing in a Twitter thread that it is “best people don’t show up to rally in front of Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday,” as she did not “want there to be any issues.”

She called on supporters to promote Trump’s rally in Waco instead.

(Reporting by Gram Slattery; Additional reporting by Ted Hesson; Editing by Ross Colvin and Howard Goller)

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By Andrew Chung

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court should dismiss a major case from North Carolina that could give more power over federal elections to state politicians because the matter is being reconsidered by a lower court, North Carolina said in a filing on Monday, while the Republican lawmakers at the center of the dispute disagreed.

The disagreement over the future of the case is the latest flashpoint in litigation that could have a significant impact on U.S. elections in the coming years and decades. The case began as a legal fight over a map drawn by Republican state legislators of North Carolina’s 14 U.S. House of Representatives districts – one that a lower court blocked as unlawfully disadvantageous for Democrats.

The state’s Department of Justice, headed by Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein, said that a decision by the North Carolina Supreme Court to revisit its ruling last year invalidating the Republican-drawn map means there is not a final judgment typically needed to trigger a review by the top U.S. judicial body.

The justices should “dismiss this case for lack of jurisdiction” given that the “decisions on review are nonfinal,” the state said.

Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration, which had argued against the Republican position when the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in the case in December, also suggested that the justices have reason to avoid a decision.

The state lawmakers who defended the Republican-drawn map and some of the plaintiffs who challenged its legality urged the justices to press ahead and issue a ruling in the case.

The Republican lawmakers had urged the U.S. Supreme Court to embrace a once-marginal legal theory now embraced by many conservatives that would remove any role of state courts and state constitutions in regulating presidential and congressional elections.

The legal theory, called the “independent state legislature” doctrine, is based in part on the U.S. Constitution’s statement that the “times, places and manner” of federal elections “shall be prescribed in each state by the legislature thereof.”

In its filing on Monday, Biden’s administration said that the state court’s action could “effectively moot” the part of the case linked to that language in the Constitution.

Neal Katyal, an attorney for Common Cause, a voting rights group that was among the challengers to the map, disagreed: “The court should, if at all possible, decide this question now, rather than on an emergency basis during the 2024 election cycle.”

The justices indicated on March 2 that they were mulling the effect of the lower court’s decision to rehear the case on their ability to issue a decision, and asked the various parties to weigh in on the matter. If the justices decide they no longer have jurisdiction, they could dismiss the case.

Since its decision invalidating the map, the state court has undergone a change in its ideological makeup. In November’s elections, it flipped from a 4-3 Democratic majority to a 5-2 Republican majority.

At the rehearing last week, several of its conservative members appeared sympathetic toward the Republicans, who control the state legislature and the map-drawing process. An outcome favoring them would boost the party’s chances of maintaining its slim U.S. House majority next year.

During the arguments in December, the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority appeared inclined to rule in favor of the Republicans and limit state judicial power to overrule voting policies crafted by state politicians, though perhaps without going as far as the lawmakers wanted.

(Reporting by Andrew Chung in Washington. Additional reporting by John Kruzel.)

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By David Morgan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republican U.S. Senator Rick Scott said on Monday he will introduce legislation to create an independent inspector general to oversee the Federal Reserve, as he called the U.S. central bank “unable or unwilling to properly regulate” banks in a letter to Fed Chair Jerome Powell.

Scott, a Republican known for his hardline conservative positions, informed Powell of his plans in a March 20 letter that questioned the U.S. central bank’s ability to oversee the banking system, following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank earlier this month.

“I am proposing legislation to establish a presidentially-appointed and Senate-confirmed inspector general for the Federal Reserve,” Scott told Powell in the letter. “Would you support adding this much-needed level of accountability?”

“For too long, the Federal Reserve has used its claim of independence to thwart Congress and the American people while being unable or unwilling to properly regulate and supervise the large financial institutions under its care,” Scott wrote.

There was no immediate response from the Fed.

Scott is expected to introduce the legislation later this week, according to an aide.

Republicans and Democrats in Congress have pledged tighter oversight of banking regulators following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, which has been followed by billions of dollars in losses for financial stocks.

The Federal Reserve is responsible for supervising – monitoring, inspecting and examining – certain financial institutions to ensure that they comply with rules and regulations, and that they operate in a safe and sound manner.

Some lawmakers have singled out the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank for criticism, among them Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, who told an interviewer on Sunday that she does not have faith in the bank’s president, Mary Daly.

The San Francisco Fed was responsible for oversight of Silicon Valley Bank.

Scott’s legislation stems from concern in Congress that the Federal Reserve’s current inspector general is not independent enough to serve as a check on the central bank.

When Congress created Inspectors General in the 1970s, the Federal Reserve was a much smaller and less complicated entity, said Andrew Levin, an economics professor at Dartmouth and a former Fed official.

The Fed was assigned an internal IG that reports directly to the Fed board, rather than a completely independent auditor, like the Pentagon or other big agencies.

Scott also urged the Fed chief to use the central bank’s policy meeting this week to examine the bank failures and identify accountable Fed personnel. 

“The failures and malfeasance, not only of these banks, but their regulators, should be at the top of the agenda,” Scott said.

“Before the meeting concludes, it is my expectation that you name the individual(s) being fired for these failures, and make clear your support for significant accountability measures at both the Federal Reserve and our banks.” 

(Reporting by David Morgan and Heather Timmons; Editing by Leslie Adler)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Republican chairmen of three U.S. House of Representatives committees on Monday asked for communications, documents, and testimony from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg related to a probe into alleged hush payments to a porn star by former President Donald Trump.

House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, and House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil made the request in a letter to Bragg. Trump said over the weekend he expects to be arrested on Tuesday as New York prosecutors consider charges against him.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Doina Chiacu)

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By Luc Cohen

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A New York City prosecutor who was publicly criticized for declining to charge Donald Trump last year now appears very close to bringing the first criminal indictment against a former president in U.S. history.

Trump on Saturday said that he expects to be arrested this week on charges by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who is investigating whether Trump falsified business records by concealing his reimbursement of his former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen for a $130,000 payment Cohen made to porn star Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.

The payment, made during the waning weeks of Trump’s 2016 campaign for the White House, was intended to secure Daniels’ silence about an affair she said she had with Trump, prosecutors said. A spokesman for Bragg declined to comment on Saturday.

Trump said on his Truth Social platform that he expected to be arrested on Tuesday and called on his supporters to protest.

Trump, who is running for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, did not say he had been formally notified of forthcoming charges and did not discuss the possible charges in the post.

Thousands of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, after a fiery speech in which he falsely claimed his election defeat was the result of widespread fraud.

Bragg, a Democrat, took office in January 2022, after his predecessor indicted the former president’s family company and its top financial executive over a 15-year-tax fraud scheme.

A prosecutor leading that probe, Mark Pomerantz, resigned in February 2022 after Bragg declined to charge Trump himself for financial crimes. Pomerantz has publicly criticized Bragg’s decision not to bring charges and published a book about the investigation.

Pomerantz has said concerns about potentially losing the case should be weighed against the possibility of “promoting disrespect for the law” by not bringing charges when warranted.

Bragg has defended his decision.

“I bring hard cases when they are ready,” Bragg said in a Feb. 7 news conference. “Mark Pomerantz’s case simply was not ready. So I said to my team, let’s keep working.”

Trump has called the probe a “witch hunt.”

A grand jury began hearing evidence in the case earlier this year.

Cohen previously testified that Trump directed him to arrange the payment, and Cohen pleaded guilty in December 2018 to campaign finance violations and other charges.

“For the DA’s office to charge former President Trump, a victim of extortion, with a crime because his then lawyer, Michael Cohen, a convicted liar, paid the extortionist would be unprecedented and outrageous selective prosecution,” Trump lawyer Susan Necheles said in a statement on March 10.

Proving Trump intended to commit a crime may be one of Bragg’s biggest challenges, said Jennifer Beidel, a partner at law firm Saul Ewing and former federal prosecutor.

“One would think that the former president would try to argue that people independent of him were making their own choices about what to do, maybe out of motivation to please him, but maybe not with his direction,” Beidel said.

Bragg, the first Black District Attorney in Manhattan, previously served as a federal prosecutor and as a senior official in the New York State Attorney General’s office, where he oversaw a lawsuit that forced the former president’s namesake charitable foundation to dissolve.

Shortly after taking office, his critics complained about a plan to refrain from prosecuting some minor offenses, reduce pretrial detention and limit sentence length. Bragg argued that “over-incarceration” has not improved public safety.

In the biggest trial victory so far in his tenure, his office last December won the conviction of the Trump Organization on tax fraud charges. Allen Weisselberg, the organization’s former chief financial officer, had pleaded guilty and testified against the company at trial.

Several observers have defended Bragg against Pomerantz’s criticism.

“Bragg’s decision not to pull the trigger in February 2022 … actually may have been courageous, not cowardly,” Andrew Weissman, a former federal prosecutor, wrote in a review of Pomerantz’s book in the Washington Post. “He hardly had anything to gain and a lot to lose politically by the decision.”

(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Additional reporting by Karen Freifeld; Editing by Noeleen Walder, Grant McCool and Diane Craft)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Former U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to be indicted by a grand jury late Monday or on Wednesday in a hush payments case involving a porn star, Politico reported on Monday, citing three unidentified people involved in the deliberations.

Law enforcement officials are meeting at New York Police Department headquarters to plan for the indictment, according to an unnamed person involved in the planning, the news outlet reported.

“We’ll be discussing how we bring Trump in,” the person involved in the planning was quoted as saying. “No decisions have been made yet.”

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office has been investigating a $130,000 hush payment made by Michael Cohen, Trump’s estranged former fixer, to porn star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Trump, whose supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to overturn his 2020 election defeat, said Saturday that he expected to be arrested on Tuesday and called for protests. He said “illegal leaks” indicated an arrest on Tuesday, but provided no evidence, and his spokesman said Trump had not been notified of any impending arrest.

Bragg’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

(Reporting by Washington newsroom; Editing by Tim Ahmann)

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By Joseph Ax

(Reuters) – Donald Trump’s lawyers on Monday asked a Georgia court to quash a special grand jury report detailing its investigation into the former U.S. president’s efforts to overturn his 2020 statewide election defeat.

The filing in Fulton County Superior Court also seeks to have the county district attorney, Fani Willis, recused from the case, arguing that her media appearances and social media posts demonstrated her bias against Trump.

The move comes as the former president’s legal problems intensify on multiple fronts. In New York, prosecutors appear on the verge of charging Trump in connection with hush money payments made to a pornographic film star who claimed she and Trump had an affair.

Trump also faces separate U.S. Justice Department probes into his retention of classified documents after leaving the White House as well as his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

The Georgia motion seeks to bar prosecutors from using any evidence or testimony derived from the grand jury’s investigation.

Willis, an elected Democrat, told a judge two months ago that the decision on criminal charges was “imminent,” shortly after the panel completed its final report, which has largely remained under seal.

The report includes the jurors’ recommendations to prosecutors on possible indictments for election interference, though the details remain secret.

If charged in New York or Georgia, Trump would become the first former U.S. president to face criminal prosecution.

Trump is seeking the 2024 Republican presidential nomination and has accused both Willis and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, also a Democrat, of targeting him for partisan reasons.

The Georgia probe began shortly after a January 2021 phone call in which Trump urged the state’s top election official, Brad Raffensperger, to “find” enough votes to reverse Joe Biden’s victory, asserting falsely that the results were tainted by widespread fraud. Days later, a mob of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, trying to prevent the certification of Biden’s national victory.

At Willis’s request, a special grand jury was convened last year to aid in her investigation. While the grand jury did not have the authority to produce indictments, it could issue subpoenas and heard testimony from 75 witnesses, including top Trump allies such as U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham and lawyer Rudy Giuliani. Trump did not appear as a witness.

In Monday’s motion, Trump’s lawyers mounted several arguments, including asserting that the statute permitting such special purpose grand juries is unconstitutional and that grand jurors who spoke with media outlets violated the law.

“The whole world has watched the process of the SPGJ unfold and what they have witnessed was a process that was confusing, flawed and, at-times, blatantly unconstitutional,” they wrote, using an acronym for the jury.

Willis’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The investigation has also examined a scheme involving a slate of fake “electors” that falsely asserted Trump had won Georgia in an effort to award the state’s electoral votes to him, rather than Biden.

(Reporting by Joseph Ax; Editing by Bill Berkrot)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The possibility that Donald Trump may be charged for allegedly covering up hush money payments to a porn star during his 2016 campaign is garnering sympathy for the Republican former president, New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu said on Sunday.

Trump, whose supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 to overturn his 2020 election defeat, said he expects to be arrested on Tuesday and called for protests. He did not cite any evidence for his arrest concerns and his spokesman said the former president had not been notified of any impending arrest.

“It’s building a lot of sympathy for the former president,” Sununu, also a Republican, told CNN’s “State of the Union” program, saying he spoke to some people on Sunday who were not “big Trump supporters but they all said … they felt he was being attacked.”

Trump is seeking the 2024 Republican nomination for president. Sununu, a relative moderate, is considering a run and appeared to be trying to avoid alienating Trump supporters.

Asked if Trump had special responsibility to ensure protests did not turn violent, Sununu said “well, sure” but quickly added this was a broader societal responsibility, saying “you can’t just put it on the former president.”

Trump’s former national security adviser H.R. McMaster and former economic adviser Gary Cohn on Sunday both urged Trump supporters to respond peacefully to any developments this week.

Prominent Republicans, such as Trump’s former Vice President Mike Pence and House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy, suggested a possible prosecution by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, would be politically motivated.

No U.S. president, while in office or afterward, has faced criminal charges. Trump has said he will continue campaigning even if charged with a crime.

‘POLITICAL EXTREMISM’

In a social media post on Sunday, Trump accused President Joe Biden of playing a role in the Manhattan probe but offered no evidence. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A spokesperson for Bragg, whose office has been investigating a $130,000 hush payment made by Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen to porn actor Stormy Daniels, declined to comment on Sunday.

Sources have said Bragg’s office has been presenting evidence to a grand jury about the payment, which came in the waning days of the 2016 campaign in return for Daniels’ silence about an affair she said she had with Trump a decade earlier.

Trump has denied the affair happened and called the investigation by Bragg a witch hunt.

Robert Costello, a lawyer, is expected to appear before the Manhattan grand jury on Monday, a source familiar with the matter said, suggesting Costello would call Cohen’s credibility into question.

A witness has been expected to appear on Monday at the request of Trump’s attorneys to provide information exculpatory of the former president, another source told Reuters on Saturday.

Costello’s expected appearance was first reported by the New York Times.

Legal experts have said if Trump were indicted that any trial would still be more than a year away, possibly coinciding with the final months of the 2024 presidential campaign.

When asked if the legal drama surrounding Trump could help him politically, the top House Democrat, Hakeem Jeffries, told MSNBC’s “Inside with Jen Psaki” that American voters had rejected political extremism during the 2022 midterm elections.

“It’s my expectation that they will continue to do so moving forward,” he said on Sunday. “It is unfortunate that the extreme has become mainstream for this version of the Republican Party.”

(Reporting by Karen Freifield, Arshad Mohammed, Michelle Nichols, Kanishka Singh and Nandita Bose; Editing by Mark Porter and Chris Reese)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The possibility that Donald Trump may be charged for allegedly covering up hush money payments to a porn star during his 2016 campaign is garnering sympathy for the Republican former president, New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu said on Sunday.

Trump, whose supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to try to overturn his 2020 presidential election defeat, said in a social media post on Saturday that he expected to be arrested on Tuesday – citing leaks from the Manhattan district attorney’s office – and called on people to protest. He did not discuss the possible charges in his post.

“It’s building a lot of sympathy for the former president,” Sununu told CNN’s “State of the Union” program, saying he spoke to some people on Sunday who were not “big Trump supporters but they all said … they felt he was being attacked.”

Trump is seeking the 2024 Republican nomination. Sununu, a relative moderate, is considering a run.

A spokesman for Trump said the former president had not been notified of any arrest and Trump provided no evidence of leaks from the Manhattan district attorney’s office.

No U.S. president – while in office or afterward – has faced criminal charges.

Trump has said he will continue campaigning even if charged with a crime.

A spokesperson for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whose office has been investigating a $130,000 hush payment Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen made to porn actor Stormy Daniels, declined to comment.

Sources have said that Bragg’s office has been presenting evidence to a grand jury about the payment, which came in the waning days of the 2016 campaign in return for Daniels’ silence about an affair she said she had with Trump a decade earlier.

Trump has denied that the affair happened and called the investigation by Bragg, a Democrat, a witch hunt.

An additional witness is expected to appear before the grand jury on Monday, at the request of Trump’s lawyers, a person familiar with the matter said on Saturday.

Trump’s statement that he expected to be arrested Tuesday is based on news reports that Bragg’s office is going to be meeting with law enforcement to prepare for a possible indictment, said the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Legal experts have said that if he were indicted any trial of the former U.S. president would still be more than a year away, possibly coinciding with the final months of the 2024 presidential campaign as Trump seeks a return to the White House.

Asked if she was concerned about potential violence after Trump called on his supporters to protest, Senator Elizabeth Warren told ABC News, “This is another case of Donald Trump advancing the interest of Donald Trump.”

Warren said there was no cause for protest, as called upon by Trump, adding: “No one is above the law.”

(Reporting By Arshad Mohammed and Kanishka Singh; Editing by Mark Porter)

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By Karen Freifeld

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A lawyer called to testify behind closed-doors in New York on Monday may challenge the claims of a key witness before a grand jury decides whether to charge former President Donald Trump over hush money paid to a porn star, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Sunday.

    Robert Costello has been asked to appear before the grand jury at the request of Trump’s lawyers because he may have information that calls into question events as described by Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer, the source said.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s office has asked Cohen to be available on Monday as a rebuttal witness, if needed, according to a second source, who did not want to be named. Cohen testified before the grand jury twice last week.       

Trump, whose supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 to overturn his 2020 election defeat, said Saturday that he expects to be arrested on Tuesday and called for protests. He said “illegal leaks” indicated an arrest on Tuesday, but provided no evidence, and his spokesman said Trump had not been notified of any impending arrest.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s office earlier this month invited Trump to testify before the grand jury probing the payment, which legal experts said was a sign that an indictment could be close. Trump declined the offer, a person familiar with the matter said.

No U.S. president, while in office or afterward, has faced criminal charges. Trump, who is seeking the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, has said he would continue campaigning even if charged with a crime.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office has been investigating a $130,000 hush payment made by Cohen, Trump’s estranged former fixer, to porn star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Sources have said Bragg’s office has been presenting evidence to a grand jury about the payment that was made to Daniels in return for her silence about an affair she said she had with Trump a decade earlier.

The grand jury will determine whether there is sufficient evidence to formally charge Trump with a crime. The proceedings are not public.

Costello’s testimony is expected to focus on the payment to Stormy Daniels and how that came about, the first source said. Costello is better known for his representation of former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani.

Cohen consulted with Costello years ago, and was given a retainer agreement but never signed it, the first source said. Cohen also waived attorney-client privilege in 2019, the source added.

‘WITCH HUNT’

Cohen was sentenced to prison in 2018 after pleading guilty in federal court to campaign finance violations tied to hush money payments to Daniels and another woman during Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, among other crimes.

Trump has denied the affair with Daniels happened and called the investigation by Bragg a political persecution.

“THE WITCH HUNT NEVER ENDS, BUT WE WILL MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!” Trump posted on social media on Sunday. 

Talk of a Trump arrest could be boosting his support, New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu, a fellow Republican, told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.

“It’s building a lot of sympathy for the former president,” said Sununu, a relative moderate, who is considering his own presidential run and appeared to be trying to avoid alienating Trump supporters.

Asked if Trump had special responsibility to ensure protests did not turn violent, Sununu said “well, sure” but quickly added this was a broader societal responsibility, saying “you can’t just put it on the former president.”

Trump’s former national security adviser H.R. McMaster and former economic adviser Gary Cohn on Sunday both urged Trump supporters to respond peacefully to any developments this week.

Prominent Republicans, such as Trump’s former Vice President Mike Pence and House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy, suggested a possible prosecution by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, would be politically motivated.

Trump also took to social media on Sunday to accuse President Joe Biden of playing a role in the Manhattan probe but offered no evidence. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A spokesperson for Bragg declined to comment on Sunday.

Legal experts have said if Trump were indicted that any trial could still be more than a year away, possibly coinciding with the final months of the 2024 presidential campaign.

(Reporting by Karen Freifeld in New York and by Arshad Mohammed, Michelle Nichols, Kanishka Singh and Nandita Bose in Washington; Writing by Arshad Mohammed; Editing by Mark Porter, Chris Reese and Diane Craft)

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